It is reported that 80 people turned out for the Surfside Landscape Tour and hundreds of lbs. of food was collected for the food bank in Ocean Park. This is a good thing. As I understand, you had to go to the office and get a map to find out what properties in Surfside were included in the tour. It is reported that most of the tour sites were focused on lots with tree topping. On this blog on the left side, you can click on Surfside pictures for a picture tour that I posted.
I was disappointed that I had not been asked to participate. I guess I did not measure up as a choice from the elite J Place Tree Committee. That's OK, as many know,t I was featured in an article in the Chinook Observer and Astoria news papers several years ago with pictures, entitled, Gardening on a budget. I do the best I can with what I have.
I garden for my own pleasure and not as a show to be featured in a tour. My motto has always been that you don't have to be crummy just because your old and poor. As I approach 83 it is getting harder every year to just do the regular tasks of caring for a place at the beach. I know there are many in Surfside that would appreciate a little help in maintenance of their property including the yards. My single wide trailer has been here since 1975. I certainly can't be considered elite. I appreciate the many members who drive by and give out a shout about my modest yard and the many who stop by to chat and get a personal tour. It makes an old guy feel pretty good.
There are many nice yards in the compactor neighborhood with many senior citizens on fixed income, doing the best they can. And best of all, they are the nicest people in the world. I mow 5 properties around me to keep things looking neat. I do not charge for this, I do it to be a good neighbor. The rewards are far greater than and monetary compensation. We look after each other over here.
Here are recent pictures of my place, not on the tour.
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| First flowers of the season |
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| This is where I sit and watch all the members go by to the compactor. This spot will be filled with flowers. I winter over my Geraniums and hanging baskets. Saves a lot of money by doing this. I also enjoy the view of mature trees all around. |
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| My front steps will be surrounded with many flowers as Summer progresses. My friend Larry Raymer, caught me when I fell down the steps. Several days later he showed up and built the better hand rail on the left. Much appreciated and used |
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| side yard |
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| I enjoy the window box as much from the inside as outside. |
21 comments:
Deleting already I see.....
To all those interested, I'm in the process of organizing a pity party for George, so please respond so I can get a head count.
Noticed you excluded the stumps from the murdered trees. That's the first thing I always notice when I drive by. At least the topped trees you felt the need to mentioned are still alive.
Good job George, looks great!
George is a master gardener and has been at it for many decades. It is interesting that a garden tour would intentionally avoid his place when it is always a showplace the whole community gets to enjoy on the way to the Compactor site. Strange that the organizers can't let HOA issues take a day off and let George show off his handiwork. Looks beautiful George.
Give me a break.
Even if you were to forget all of the attacks against the tree committee when the tour was first mentioned George was highly critical of it and stated that the committee had no business doing it, so why would he want to be part of it then? Even now after the success it was, he still had to take shots at them with the tree topping and elites comment. Then to make matters worse he even went with the good old east side vs west side and poor people crap.
For those who didn't go on the tour there were places on the east side along with RV lots that were part of it. It was a nice community event with people enjoying themselves. Only on here would that be negative. There was a time when stuff like this was celebrated on here. Sadly those times are gone.
Give me a break.
Even if you were to forget all of the attacks against the tree committee, when the tour was first mentioned George was highly critical of it and stated that the committee had no business doing it so why would he want to be part of it then? Even now after the success it was, he still had to take shots at them with the tree topping and elites comment. Then to make matters worse he even went with the good old east side vs west side and poor people crap.
For those who didn't go on the tour there were places on the east side along with RV lots that were part of it. It was a nice community event with people enjoying themselves. Only here would that be negative. There was a time when stuff like this was celebrated on here. Sadly those times are long gone.
Give me a break...
Why do you keep repeating yourself? Do you think that I even care what you say? Do you think I get upset when you keep attacking me over and over? Do you think you "got me" with your repeated comments about my neighbors cutting down diseased trees? If you think your getting me, your just wasting your time. I could care less what you say about nothing repeatedly. Why don't you go out and say something nice or compliment someone? It will make them feel better and you also. I am sure that the homes on the tour were very nice and owned by nice people. Why are you so defensive? You come across as a small mean person. I hope you have a nice 4th and others enjoy your company.
The posts on this blog and a popular gardening site on Facebook were not taken well by many of us according to my coffee group this morning. The whining and complaining about not be included in the Surfside garden tour was hateful sour grapes. Think again Mr. blog host. You have made a fool of yourself again.
Well, considering who u have coffee with, am not surprised. Cruel, vindictive n juvenile.
Wow, more negative hateful comments from the "Surfide Mafia" about George's blog. What a surprise!
George said nice things about the properties in the tour, and it is pretty amazing that his property was not included, as it is one of the most beautiful properties in Surfside.
Obviously not all the trees that were topped over the last 5 years are alive. Many, many have died and MOST of the others look like crap. The remaining just look weird.
Just another example of the crap we have to go to to belong to an association that we don't really want to.
As for your coffee group , try to discuss the needs of the association, like honesty and transparency, as opposed to hiding your heads in the sand.
You greatly exaggerate George's comments. He said he was disappointed that he was not included, and ventured a guess as to why. What stands out really is how ridiculously defensive the responses. At 83 years of age, it seems he could be cut a little slack for being a bit cantankerous. He has contributed a great deal of his time volunteering for the community over the many years he has lived in Surfside, and is disappointed with the state of the community.
No transparency or honesty in governance, and apparently no guilt either. a year after our community became embroiled in a huge legalmess with the EPA and State regulators, the slough of violations subject of fines($27,000 - L&I) and costly Asbestos Abatement ($45,000) not to mention a year's worth of legal bills, have yet to be admitted to, or spoken of publicly. Meanwhile, members are footing the bill. That is plenty of reason to be disheartened at 83 years of age.
Things will not get better without adjustments in policy and practices, but we know of no adjustments made, or any real awareness that the screw-ups were real, very costly, and very serious in nature. We have no reason to be optimistic, when a cover-up this big is left a mystery, and no lesson has been learned.
Nice try George. I see you're in full on victim mode as usual.
Maybe you should try to follow your own advice about saying something nice or complimenting someone. Reread my comment, I did compliment the tour whereas you used the topic to once again make disparaging comments aimed at the tree committee. so as I said, give me a break. Just look at all your topics concerning the committee with headers like obnoxious tree committee, kill tree committee, etc. You want to call me a small mean person, go ahead if it makes you feel better. I'm just responding to your negative comments. It's that simple. Ever since you quit the committee and the board you have been a bitter, vindictive man (or as Cox calls it, cantankerous) when it comes to the tree committee people and you know it. Believe it or not I voted for you. But as I also said in my comment, you and your blog were a different place back then, not as it is now.
Not that you care but I did have a great 4th at a gathering of neighbors that included J placers, flatlanders and RVers. Full and part timers. Unlike the animosity that you and others project on here we all get along and celebrate together often. We too look after each other and most are also on fixed incomes. Even though we come from different backgrounds and live in different areas we have one important thing in common, we all actually love it here.
“Flatlanders”. That speaks of discrimination. Grounds for a suit Freddie.
Def not winning any converts Freddy, just look desperate, hateful n foolish.
Nice job ignoring the community issues as a reason for George's pessimism, but you latched onto the "cantankerous" comment to further harass George. It just continues to be all about the folks on the ridge being above criticism. That's why George was chased off of the Board.
Quit with the chased off the board crap. The word is QUIT and then QUIT again.
Same old BS. When they can't justify a discriminatory covenant such as killing trees for a view, they attack the messenger. "You knew the covenants when you moved here" is not a reason to continue a policy that is just plain wrong. I have to feel sorry for the poor fool who keeps trying to divert attention from the topic by trying to make it about me. They need to "get a life", or another hobby. BTW, nice seeing so many folks enjoying the 4th. Stay safe everyone.
We all know that he was chased off of the Board. Instead of discussing his role of Trustee running a Blog in closed session -there's usually one every meeting - an open gripe session was organized by Mr. Williams egged on by Peg Olds and A. deLeest. It was a rare instance when George had not been able to attend. The message sent to George was to end the Blog or resign. He resigned.
A few months later the HOA was embroiled in a Federal EPA investigation and multiple violations at the Water Dept. were the subject of huge fines. Had George given up the Blog several months before as demanded, Members would not have been notified of these management failures, the Observer would not have done an article on these Surfside issues (Dec. 2018), and members would still be in the dark waiting for any confession by the HOA.
He made the better choice in retrospect, and members were greatly benefited by his actions.
History lesson:
Flatlanders was coined by Patrick as a description so relax. Given the amount of vitriol aimed at the ridge folks among other stuff on here good luck with that lawsuit.
The reason George didn't show up at that meeting was because his buddy Larry told him about a discussion at the tree committee meeting concerning his false accusations aimed at them, something inappropriate for a sitting board member to do. He was not told to end his blog or resign. He was told to treat all committee members respectfully and not say things that weren't true. Spin it all you want but that's what happened.
The statement by 11:36 is totally false.
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